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Ephemeris: 05/05/2025 – A brief early morning meteor shower

May 5, 2025

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Cinco de Mayo, Monday, May 5th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 26 minutes, setting at 8:53, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:25. The Moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 4:03 tomorrow morning.

The Earth is now passing through a stream of bits of rock that were shed from Halley’s Comet on its many previous passes through the inner solar system. The Earth gets to pass through this stream twice a year, Once in late October as the stream passes the Earth’s orbit heading in, and in early May as the stream is departing. The peak of this meteor shower, the Eta Aquariids, is this afternoon. Since the meteoroids are coming from nearer the direction of the Sun, there is only a short period when these meteors are visible. Actually less than an hour between moonset at 4:03 AM and nearly 5 AM around here as twilight begins to interfere with the display. The meteors will seem to come from low in the east-southeast, but they will be seen all over the sky.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

Eta Aquariid Radiant
The sky at 4:15 AM, May 6, 2025 on the morning after the peak. Despite the low position of the Eta (funny looking n) Aquariid radiant in the east, the meteors will appear all over the sky appear but can be traced back to the direction of the radiant. Created using Stellarium. The Eta Lyrid and Antihelion meteor showers, though active will contribute very few meteors.

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